As is well-known, in games such as bingo, keno and lotto, a series of numbers are required to obtain a winning game. For instance, in bingo, a player has a card containing a 5 by 5 matrix of squares containing numbers from one to eighty. Numbers are called, and if the bingo player has the numbers displayed on his or her card in a particular pattern, then the bingo player has won. Many bingo players would like to record how often each of the possible bingo numbers has been called to develop and confirm strategy.
Prior art bingo devices, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,389 to Loyd, Jr. et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,995 to Henkel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,906 to DiFrancesco et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,209 to Militello disclose various ways to record what numbers were called during a particular bingo game. Loyd, Jr. discloses an electronic bingo game that stores all the numbers called in a first bingo game during a second bingo game and until a third bingo game is initiated in order to verify late bingo win claims. Loyd does not, however, store numbers for repeated games and then calculate the frequency with which each was called.
Henkel and DiFrancesco disclose portable electronic bingo cards. Henkel discloses an electronic bingo card where the player can create the matrix of numbers on the card and then input the numbers as they are called. The electronic bingo card indicates with lights which numbers have been entered as called, which numbers are needed to achieve bingo, and all of the winning combinations when a win is achieved. DiFrancesco discloses an electronic bingo card for selecting numbers for several bingo cards and for assisting in playing and monitoring several bingo cards simultaneously. Neither Henkel nor DiFrancesco, however, allow for storing repeated games and calculating the frequency of the numbers called.
Militello discloses a mechanical device for recording what numbers were called during a bingo game wherein gamecounters are deposited in holes corresponding to a bingo number. Militello, however, lacks any electronic means and records what numbers have been called for only one game. It also lacks any means for automatically calculating how often a number has been called.